The old-time snack stalls on Huayin Street – the angelica lamb soup with fermented bean paste is surprisingly delicious!

Text & Photos byXiao Hu’s Dream Food Blog

Have food lovers noticed that there are actually quite a few well-established snack stalls around Huayin Street near the back of Taipei Railway Station? Among them, this small shop famous for its "angelica lamb soup" is quite a standout. Though it’s a modest little business, it does very brisk trade. However, in the summer when the weather gets too hot, the owner takes an indulgent summer holiday... which is why I came up empty-handed three or four times before finally getting to try it on a recent chilly day, XD.

I first heard about this place from an older gentleman who recommended it not necessarily because it was super delicious, but because the “sheep brain soup” in the lower left corner and the “sheep trotter soup” in the upper left corner were quite rare. Of course, I ended up remembering it more because of food writer Shu Guozhi’s mention in the high-speed rail magazine.

It’s located in the front section of Huayin Street, right across from Taipei Main Station. The shop is small but not hard to find, especially since it’s right next to a very famous phone case and screen protector store.

Though the menu looks quite extensive, upon closer inspection it’s all lamb-based dishes. The “red meat soup” and “stewed meat soup” are their signature items, while other options come in very small portions and usually sell out by the afternoon.

To be honest, NT$180 for a bowl of soup and a plate of noodles isn’t exactly cheap, and the amount of lamb in the bowl isn’t all that much – same goes for the noodles, really...

The angelica stewed meat soup is NT$140, and there are only about five or six pieces of lamb in it, none of them very big. My first impression was “expensive,” but then the rich aroma of traditional Chinese herbs hit me, which was quite enchanting.

As the soup entered my mouth, the fragrance of the herbs came through without being overpowering, and there wasn’t too much saltiness or oiliness either – just a faint hint of ginger. After the soup slid down my throat, a trace of lamb flavor and the sweetness of the lamb fat slowly returned to my palate – it was incredibly smooth and tasty.

Just as I was taking pictures with my camera, the owner suddenly ran out and kept apologizing, basically saying that this bowl was all fat and skin, and asking if I wanted to swap it for one with more meat. My response was: “I actually prefer the fatty parts.” Turns out, those few pieces of lamb really were all fat and skin, with probably less than 20% lean meat. But despite being fatty and oily, the lamb had almost no gamy smell (usually the fatty parts are stronger in taste), and the sweetness from the melted fat was very satisfying. The skin was soft and chewy, neither too hard nor too mushy, and even the small amount of lean meat wasn’t dry or tough – although there wasn’t much, it was still really tasty.

Also, the small dish of fermented bean paste was very fragrant and not overly salty. Spot on.

As for the noodles, they were a bit soft and mushy, but the flavor seemed to come mainly from a touch of lamb fat and soup – smooth, slippery, and gone in a slurp in less than ten seconds... delicious, but the portion was really small XD.

Hou Che Tou Tsai Ji Gangshan Lamb
No. 42-5, Huayin Street, Datong District, Taipei City
Tel: 02-25584856
Business hours: 08:00–19:30 (Closed on Sundays, also closes for a period in the summer)

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